NEXT STEPS

Apple Has Tough Path Without Jobs

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A worker cleans the windows of an Apple Inc. store in Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011. Steve Jobs, co-founder and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc.

Steve Jobs’s passing comes at a crucial moment for Apple and its new CEO, Tim Cook: it is surrounded by ferocious competitors bent on ending its dominance. Google hopes to beat the iPhone with its Android operating system; Netflix wants to become the premier destination for Internet streaming; and Amazon is undercutting the iPad with its inexpensive new tablet, the Kindle Fire. Jobs was able to make investors and consumers believe with his near-religious descriptions of the company’s products, but Cook is a more technical leader. His challenge will be to fight the real or imagined impression that Apple’s products are slipping without Jobs behind them.